Theodorick Bland

Theodorick Bland

Theodorick Bland (born March 21, 1742 in Petersburg , Colony of Virginia , †  June 1, 1790 in New York City ) was an American politician . In 1789 and 1790 he represented the state of Virginia in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Theodorick Bland grew up during the British colonial period and was temporarily taught in England . He then studied at the Scottish Edinburgh medicine. In 1759 he returned to Virginia, where he practiced as a doctor. At the end of the 1760s he gave up this profession and worked in agriculture. In the 1770s he joined the American Revolution . During the War of Independence he was a captain in the Continental Army . Between 1780 and 1783 he was a member of the Continental Congress , whose sessions had previously been attended by his uncle Richard Bland (1710–1776) in 1774 and 1775 . In 1785 he was a lieutenant in the Prince George County militia . Bland served in the Virginia House of Representatives from 1786 to 1788 . In 1788 he was a delegate to the convention at which the state of Virginia ratified the United States Constitution. Bland rejected this constitution.

In the congressional election of 1789 , Bland was elected to the US House of Representatives in the ninth constituency of Virginia, where he took up his new mandate on March 4, 1789. Politically, Bland was in opposition to President George Washington and his administration. He died while still serving as Congressman on June 1, 1790 in New York. Bland was the first ever Congressman to die in office.

Web links

• Theodorick Bland in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Theodorick Bland in the database of Find a Grave (English)